A physical chemist by
training, I am working in two broad areas, reactivity of carbon cluster ions
using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, and reactivity of carbon nanotubes
and fullerenes using optical and mass spectrometric techniques. While the
goal of this work is to carry out publishable work on current problems,
there is considerable emphasis on providing undergraduate students a
meaningful experience in current, cross-disciplinary work with modern
instrumentation.

Reactivity of carbon Cluster
Anions (with Dr. Andrew J. Leavitt)

A variety of atmospheric
reactions occur on the surface of soot, a ubiquitous pollutant. We are
exploring the reactivity of carbon cluster cations and anions (pictured
below) with oxides of sulfur to experimentally and computationally model
atmospheric reactions.

Carbon
nanotubes are of considerable interest because of their unique physical and
chemical properties. While these novel materials are of interest in their
own right, they are also potentially useful in a wide array of applications,
e.g., nanoelectronic devices, composite materials that may be used in
automobiles, and miniaturized chemical sensors. An important element in
processing materials is the ability to manipulate them physically or
chemically. As such, carbon nanotubes are not soluble in water or common
organic solvents. We have carried out a number of studies with the active
participation of undergraduate students, wherein surfactants enable us to
make suspensions of nanotubes in a variety of solvents. These are easily
characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy.

The chemical modification of
carbon nanotubes would afford the possibilities of altering the structural
and electronic properties, and also provide new avenues wherein increased
solubility also enhances the ability to process these materials and
therefore increase their potential use for practical applications. While
the ultimate goal of our research is to functionalize carbon nanotubes, we
re also working on the structurally similar fullerene C60 for
functionalization as well. The first type of functionalization is a
cyclopropanation with a dichlorocarbene. We are particularly interested in
enhancing the rates of the reaction by applying the powerful and proven
techniques of ultrasounds. The characterization of the products is carried
out using LC-MS, in collaboration with Dr. Swamy-Mruthinti in Biology.